European Court of Human Rights

News about European Court of Human Rights, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Dec. 3, 2014

Ireland accuses Britain of torturing 14 Irish Republican Army suspects in Northern Ireland in 1971 and formally asks European Court of Human Rights to review its original findings in case; court ruled in 1978 that while British soldiers' interrogation tactics were inhumane, they fell short of torture. MORE

Oct. 25, 2014

Polish government appeals ruling by European Court of Human Rights that country violated the rights of two terrorism suspects by transferring them to interrogation site in northeast Poland run by Central Intelligence Agency; ruling was first involving a European country that had participated in CIA's 'extraordinary rendition' program. MORE

Jul. 2, 2014

European Court of Human Rights upholds French ban on wearing face-covering veils in public, rejecting arguments that measure violates religious freedoms and bolstering opponents of strict Islamic dress in other parts of Europe. MORE

Feb. 1, 2014

Editorial welcomes decision by the European Court of Human Rights to hold the Irish government liable for the sexual abuse of children at state-funded Catholic schools, forcing it to compensate victims; says there is ample evidence that government failed to protect children as it attempted to deny responsibility. MORE

Jan. 29, 2014

European Court of Human Rights rules that Louise O'Keeffe, Irish woman who was sexually abused when she attended publicly financed Roman Catholic primary school in 1970s, is entitled to compensation for Irish government's failure to protect her. MORE

Oct. 22, 2013

European Court of Human Rights rules against a Spanish law that has allowed the government to extend the imprisonment of convicted terrorists and members of ETA, the basque separatist group. MORE

Oct. 22, 2013

European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia has failed to comply with its obligations to adequately investigate the massacre of more than 20,000 Polish prisoners of war in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk by the Soviet secret police in 1940; court says it has no jurisdiction over the massacre itself or the subsequent treatment of the relatives of the dead, prompting an outcry in Poland and expressions of satisfaction among Russian officials. MORE

Jul. 9, 2013

European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, rules 16 to 1 that life sentences Great Britain handed to three convicted murderers amount to inhuman and degrading treatment because they have no hope of release; ruling deals blow to Britain and is one of several that have annoyed its dominant Conservative Party. MORE

Apr. 17, 2013

European Court of Human Rights blocks Britain from extraditing Haroon Aswat to United States, citing his mental state; Aswat, who is being held in secure psychiatric hospital, stands accused of trying to set up terrorist training camp in Oregon with radical cleric Mostafa Kamel Mostafa. MORE

Jan. 9, 2013

Aug. 29, 2012

European Court of Human Rights rules that Italy violated the rights of a couple by preventing them from screening in vitro fertilization embryos to avoid giving cystic fibrosis to a child; ruling puts pressure on Italy to change its law banning the practice. MORE

May. 10, 2012

European Court of Human Rights rejects the request of radical preacher Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman to challenge Britain's long-running attempts to deport him to Jordan to stand trial on terrorism charges; Othman, also known as Abu Qatada, is accused of giving spiritual inspiration to one of the hijackers in the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. MORE

Apr. 11, 2012

European Court of Human Rights rules that Britain can legally extradite five suspects wanted in the United States on terrorism charges, unprecedented decision that appears likely to greatly ease extradition of other suspects; all suspects, including Egyptian-born cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, face the possibility of life sentences without parole. MORE

Feb. 24, 2012

European Court of Human Rights orders Italy to compensate 24 Somali and Eritrean migrants whom Italy picked up at sea in 2009 and returned to Libya, where they were handed over to the authorities and were put at risk of ill treatment. MORE

Jan. 26, 2012

British Prime Min David Cameron calls for the European Court of Human Rights to restrict its power to overrule national judgments, opening a new battle over the reach of Europe's institutions; court has provoked British criticism by ruling that radical preacher Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, known as Abu Qatada, could not be deported to Jordan to face terrorism charges. MORE

France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’État, ruled Tuesday that a feeding tube could legally be removed from a 38-year-old man in a persistent vegetative state, whose care has been part of a long, bitter public fight involving the...